Bruised
by erniethepenguin
Summary: Saraya and Phil have been close since they first met, they're one in the same. Friends say they may as well date, and they laugh it off every time. But, maybe they're not wrong? When events unfold, can two friends stay close, through everything?
1. An Eye-Roll and a Smirk

CM Punk. Hardly a name a wrestling fan would ever forget. Regardless what anybody thinks of him, they can't deny he's a skilled wrestler, a talented, charismatic individual, and can always put on a good show. With title reigns in his history, and various unforgettable moments, he was known as one of World Wrestling Entertainment's best professional wrestlers. He always put on a great match, he could make you laugh, make you passionate, he could make you want to spend the rest of your life watching wrestling, waiting for his face to return your screen. So, it was no wonder that when Monday Night RAW was in Chicago, the entire arena erupted with excitement, passion and enthusiasm when CM Punk's music hit.

A hometown show, that was exactly what he needed to get him out of the bad mood that Paul Heyman had put him in. The entire feud with this man had gotten way out of hand, it wasn't something he wanted in his career. He'd considered Paul a friend, and despite of course it all being for television, it was getting to his head a little. He'd known Paul since he started working for ECW, he'd always been a Paul Heyman guy and knew he always would be, even if the fans believed otherwise. It was hard to accept that he'd be feuding with this man when it first happened, but now it was normal, and they could joke about it later on, and of course, it worked so much better because they knew each other so well. They knew what to pick on, how to get to one another, and Paul knew better than anyone else how Phil worked in the ring, how he moved, how he worked. It only made for an even bigger storyline, really.

Having all of those fans only brought CM Punk out of his bad mood, and though his promo ended in an attack from Ryback and Curtis Axel, it was still a great night. Any night in his hometown was always great, regardless of the end result. He was taken backstage by WWE officials, however the second he was away from fans and cameras, he was walking on his own again, assuring that he was fine, and didn't need assistance. Honestly, Phil was never the kind of guy to complain about injuries or nagging pains.

Making his way to his locker-room, he bumped into Paul, who'd been far too busy staring at his phone to even notice the man getting closer to him, "Jeez, Paul. Can't wait til you're alone to look at Ryback's nudes?" He grinned, nudging his friend as he passed, only to hear the older man sigh, "Hilarious."

Shaking his head, Phil carried on to the locker-room, where he shoved through the door, and sat down on the wooden bench by the wall, in which he'd left his things. It hadn't been a massive promo, nothing too special, but he was pretty happy about it. He knew he'd be getting a pay-per-view match with Ryback, and eventually he'd end up getting his hands on Paul, himself. That was going to be interesting, it had happened briefly at Night of Champions, before Ryback got involved, and he'd gotten a little carried away with it all, but he'd missed being able to smack the crap out of someone with a big stick. He honestly missed his ECW days, sometimes it got to him that he didn't get to just pull a guitar from under the ring and smack someone with it. All of this PG crap, it was just that. Crap.

A few minutes passed, and Phil couldn't be bothered to change, so he just wandered around the backstage area, looking for somebody to bother. He knew better than to go find April right now, as she'd be calming down from her match, and probably still in that "crazy" place she liked to go to when she was getting in character. Honestly, sometimes that girl scared him.

He made his way to the catering area, and grinned when he spotted a few of the NXT rookies crowded around one table. There was an arm wrestling match going on between Bo Dallas and Seth Rollins. Nothing better than a little free entertainment, right? Phil made his way over, and spotted Saraya stood by the wall, watching with little enthusiasm. He caught her eye, and pulled a face in her direction, causing her to roll her eyes. The two were pretty good friends, had been since they'd originally met, mostly because they had so much in common. But, Phil had a thing about annoying her, and she had a thing about insulting him. They worked, in a weird way.

Watching as Seth managed to slam Bo's hand down into the table, and both Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns erupt into laughter, grinning at their team mate with a sense of pride, Phil made his way passed the two men, and clasped Bo on the shoulder, "Don't worry. His real name's Colby." He grinned, shooting a smirk over to Rollins, who gave him the finger. It was a nice little group, the NXT crowd, and obviously the guys from the Shield still felt like a part of it, because they'd been there for a while before finally being formed as a group. They'd made friends, bonds, and they stuck to them. Phil liked a little bit of loyalty in wrestling, it was important.

* * *

Saraya stood with her back to the wall, watching the arm wrestling that was going on at the table in front of her, and sighed a little. She was bored, to be frank. Sure, she could have been back at the training grounds, she could have been working out and honing her skills more, but she knew that by being here at RAW, despite not working on RAW, she'd be seen as interested in the business. Of course she was interested in the business, though. She'd visited RAW almost every week when it was shooting, and nothing had changed. She knew how it worked, she knew what went on, and she knew that other NXT Superstars and Divas thought the same - hence why they entertained themselves with arm wrestling matches and the like.

Normally, she'd be watching the matches in the green room, but Colby had insisted she watch his arm wrestling match. She honestly didn't want to, she knew who'd win, and she knew they'd pick on Taylor for it, regardless. But, what were friends for, right? It didn't take long before she spotted Phil crossing the room, most likely to see what all the fuss was about and she realized she'd missed his promo. "Damn it." She muttered to herself, having meant to watch.

The two were friends, but that wasn't why she wanted to watch his promo. She wanted to watch because she knew he was good, she knew he could pull off a good promo, and she knew that while her skills were mostly in-ring, she needed a little brushing up when it came to her mic skills. She figured she'd pick a few things up from him - given that he's quite possibly the best at pulling promo's in today's roster.

She watched as the guys shared a few jokes, one at the expense of Colby's name, and Saraya couldn't help but laugh a little, while Phil made his way over to her. "Always the jackass." She grinned, pushing herself off the wall, and looking at the man she'd grown to become rather fond of.

"Ah, you love it." He smirked, causing her to roll her eyes again, running a hand through her long, dark hair.

"One of these days I'm going to pull a muscle in my eye from rolling them so much." She said, as the two of them made their way out of the loud, bustling catering area, and towards the hallway. Saraya could practically feel Danielle's eyes boring into the back of her head, and she knew what she'd be hearing later on.

A lot of people always asked her if she was dating Phil, and her answer was always a spurt of laughter, and a shake of her head. The two weren't more than friends, they never had been, and honestly, Saraya wasn't interested in dating, not right now. She was far too caught up in her career. She was a champion now, she was a regular face on NXT television, and she had to take that seriously, she didn't have time for a boyfriend, or any kind of romantic endeavor. She was a busy woman, and she didn't need more crap about if she was dating her best friend.

"So, what's the plan tonight?" She asked, her thick British accent shining through as she spoke, causing Phil only to mock her for it. Unfortunately, this was a common occurance between them.

"I don't know, what is the plan tonight?" He asked in return, mocking her accent, and grinning as he did so. Saraya would quickly wedge her elbow into his side, jabbing him, despite laughing a little bit.

"You're a dick." She said, shaking her head, "I feel like pizza and a Freddy marathon." With a shrug of her shoulders she answered, and looked to Phil, who was nodding in approval.

"Alright. Meet me by the doors, gotta grab my stuff." He said, before disappearing into his locker-room again, leaving Saraya to just carry on in the direction towards the two big exit doors that lead to the parking lot. She assumed they'd just go to his place, since they were in his home town, so she hopped up onto one of the crates, and waited for him to come back.

Meanwhile, Phil was busy changing from his in-ring attire to a pair of long-ish shorts and a t-shirt, as well as a pair of trainers. He wasn't one for big name labels or designers, he was happy just being comfortable. None of that Gucci or Dolce & Gabana shit for him. Shoving his things into a duffle bag, he left the locker-room, and spotted Kofi as he left, giving his friend a pat on the back. "Hey, road wife." He grinned, stopping for a moment to catch up. Sooner or later the conversation turned to Phil's plans for the evening.

"Ah, just some good old fashioned Chicago pizza and a Freddy marathon." He said, glancing up the corridor towards Saraya who was busy on her phone, she'd obviously not noticed he was out of the locker-room yet.

Looking back to Kofi he saw the expression on his face, and furrowed his brow. "What's with your face?" He asked.

"Come on." Kofi said, folding his arms across his chest. "When are you gonna ask that girl out?"

"What the hell-" Phil started, before being interrupted by his best friend.

"You guys spend all of your spare time together. If I didn't travel with you I'd never see you. You're like the same person, why aren't you dating yet?" All of this was just irritating Phil, and he shook his head, running his hand over his hair.

"I don't have time for this, okay?" He said, waving the man off, and taking off in Saraya's direction, who looked up and smiled at him as he approached. "Get off your butt, let's go." He said, rather shortly, still annoyed at Kofi's accusations.

Saraya, noticing this, hopped off the crate, and looked down the corridor, seeing Kofi shaking his head and walking away. "Something wrong?" She asked, her eyebrows raised as they left the building, into the parking lot on the outside of the building.

"Nah, nothing important. Come on, get in the car. You wanna stop on the way or just order in?" He asked, tossing his things into the back seat of his car, before then getting into the drivers seat, as Saraya got into the passenger side.

"Eh, order in. I can't be bothered with too much fuss tonight." She said, shrugging her shoulders, as she shut the door, and pulled on her seat belt, before then adjusting in the seat a little, until she was comfy. "Just means we can eat and watch at the same time. Or, in your case, eat and cry because Freddy might get you." She smirked, trying to lighten the mood.

It worked, he managed a smirk and an eye roll in her direction before he started the car and the journey towards his Chicago home.


	2. Tiny Little Spies

_I apologize that it's taken this long for me to get the motivation to write another chapter. I've been very de-motivated lately, but I'm back and I'm trying to figure some stuff out for this story. It won't be a long one, and I have an idea for another one already, but I want to finish this off first. I hope you like it._

* * *

Rolling over, Saraya awoke early, noticing the time on the clock to say 6:45am. Normally she didn't wake this early, but then again she didn't find herself asleep on her best friends sofa. Needless to say, Phil wasn't here, either. He was nowhere to be seen, but she could hear shuffling coming from the kitchen, so she stood upright, stretched a little, and made her way through the dimly lit house.

"You're awake?" Were the first words that left Phil's mouth. He was surprised, because Saraya was known for being a notorious sleeper. She could fall asleep whenever she needed to, wherever she needed to, and she could be out for hours. Her last day off had been spent completely in bed, regardless of any friends offer to go out.

"Well, good morning to you too, insomniac." She retorted, making her way past him to make some coffee, purely out of instinct.

"Somebody's grouchy. Not used to being awake so early?" He asked, mocking her in a way, though he knew it probably wasn't the best idea so early on in the morning.

"I wouldn't." She warned, shooting him a glare as she poured a mug of coffee, before hopping up onto the kitchen bench to drink it. "Did you even sleep at all last night?"

Phil just shrugged, never bothered about the amount of sleep he got. He was used to being awake all the time, used to not needing much rest to get him through the day. He didn't get a lot of energy through the day, but he managed with what he got. He never was a big sleeper anyway.

"You should really see someone about that. It can't be healthy, especially not with what we do every day." She commented, knowing he probably got this from people all the time, but she couldn't help it. Caring about him was part of being his friend, regardless of if he liked it or not.

He simply raised his eyebrows, and looked over at her. "Since when did you care so much about my sleeping pattern?" He asked, folding his arms across his chest, leaning back against the opposing kitchen bench.

"I'm just showing some concern in my friends life, sue me." She shrugged, before hopping off the bench again, taking a few last sips of her coffee and running a hand through her hair. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go abuse the use of your shower." She grinned, and disappeared out of the room, and through to the bathroom.

Phil only laughed a little, and washed her used coffee mug. Truth be told, he kind of enjoyed that she cared about him. He'd never admit to that, but he liked knowing that she got concerned over his health. Not many people really did because of how stubborn he got about his health and well being, and she didn't tend to give a crap about many people. So, it was kind of a perfect situation, in a weird way.

Regardless, he didn't really think too much of it. He knew it wasn't a big deal in her mind, so why should it be to him? Shaking his head, he wandered through the house, mindlessly tidying up after the night before, adjusting the room slightly, before he then disappeared into his own bedroom to change his clothes. They had a few things to do before they got to work later, so he wanted to be on top of things.

* * *

Saraya was busy at the Training Center when she was approached by Danielle, otherwise known as Summer Rae. The two girls had oddly become rather close, despite being so different and having such heat in the ring. Saraya really appreciated having such a good friend in this business, especially a girl, because sometimes she knew that the Divas got very bitchy and turned on one another, she didn't have time for that.

"So, I heard you and Phil went home together?" She noted, raising her eyebrows a little. Saraya only sighed, man news traveled fast around here. It was like there were tiny little spies everywhere, watching her every move.

"Yeah, I went back to his for a Freddy marathon." The Brit said, shrugging her shoulders. Her friendship with the RAW Superstar was no secret, everybody knew they were close. It just annoyed her when her friends made a big deal about it.

"Anything happen?" Danielle pushed, the smirk on her face suggesting things that Saraya could only turn her nose up at.

"Like what, Dani?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips, raising her eyebrows. "Are you asking if I slept with my best friend? Because if you are, the answer is no."

"Come on, Ray. Everyone knows you two are meant to be together. It's hardly a secret that you like each other. It's just a case of when you'll admit it to yourselves." She said, shaking her head and walking away.

Saraya could barely believe what she'd just heard. For one, people thought that she liked Phil, that she was supposed to be dating him. But, the other thing was that people thought Phil liked her too. That's what really threw her off. She could see why people would assume she'd like him. He was good looking, talented, exactly the sort of guy she'd go for, and he was always great with her. But why on earth would he want to be with her? For one the age gap was a massive turn-off for guys, she found it difficult to date, but that's mostly because she didn't try to.

She was too thrown off to think about anything else, so she left the center, still with a confused expression on her face. She didn't know what to think anymore. Did Phil know about all of this? Did he know that people thought this? She needed to talk to him, to figure this all out.

* * *

Phil was busy lacing up his boots in the locker-room when Saraya came bursting into the room. He shot onto his feet quicker than he'd of expected, but she'd given him a fright. "Raya? What the hell, you almost gave me a heart attack." He exhaled, sitting back down again, returning to the task at hand.

"Yeah, well I almost had a heart attack earlier today." She said, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. "Did you know that people think we're together?"

He'd not been expecting that. Ignoring his boots, he looked up at her, resting his arms on his legs. "Yeah, I knew." He said simply, barely looking phased, which almost annoyed her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She exclaimed, throwing her arms out to either side with a look of exasperation on her face.

Phil couldn't help it, her reaction was amusing, he ended up laughing at her a little bit. Of course, that didn't go down to well, and only ended with him getting a good punch to his upper arm. "Ouch. Jeez, calm down." He said, standing up in front of her. "Why do you care what people think?" He asked, throwing her off completely.

"I... I don't, I just didn't realize that's how people saw us." She said, shrugging her shoulders, embarrassed by her outburst.

"Who finally decided to tell you, then?" He asked, shaking his head as he brought his boot up onto the bench and finally finished lacing it up, before standing upright again, waiting on her response.

"Danielle. She assumed that because I was at your place last night that we'd... you know." She shrugged a little, averting her eyes. Saraya never realized how awkward that sort of thing was to discuss with him, mostly because she'd never done it before. She simply hadn't had time, it wasn't on her to-do list because it wasn't a big deal to her. Her career was always more important than getting a boyfriend having those firsts. But realizing she never had, and that people assumed she had with her best friend was a little embarrassing for her.

"They can assume what they like." He said, shrugging and giving her a reassuring smile. "We know the truth, and that's all that matters, right?" Phil always seemed to know how to calm her down. No wonder people thought they were together, they were closer than most people in this company.

"Right." She nodded, ashamed of the way she'd stormed in here, annoyed at herself for letting Danielle's words get to her. "I shouldn't listen to Dani, anyways. She doesn't really get it."

Nodding his head, Phil laughed, and stepped past her to grab his Best in the World hoodie, ready for the night ahead. Tonight was a simple houseshow, so he wouldn't be doing too much, but he did have a match against Shield member, Roman Reigns, which would prove to be a task and a half. He couldn't afford too many distractions right now.

"Don't listen to people, Raya. They don't know what they're talking about." He said, used to this sort of thing. People always assumed he was dating the first girl they spotted him with. Hell, he'd had a lot of this when he went through his storyline with AJ. But it was never true, and besides, he liked keeping his personal life to himself. It wasn't anybody elses business anyway.

"You're right. Sorry. I'll see you later." She said, letting herself out of his changing room, and shutting the door behind her. She felt like an idiot, but she was pleased that it was Phil. After all, he always knew how to calm her down, how to shut out any irrational thoughts she had, and he didn't judge her for thinking that way in the first place.

Maybe dating him wouldn't be so bad. But then again, that wasn't the point. He was her best friend, it wouldn't be right. Would it?

* * *

Taking a spear from Roman Reigns was always a difficult job. He didn't let up, it was nothing but pure force from this one particular competitor, and that was something that Phil respected a lot. After the match ended, he waited backstage to shake the mans hand. He always found doing that very important, to show respect in this business was a big deal. After shaking hands with all three Shield members, Phil made his way back to the locker-room, where he was soon greeted by Kofi, again.

"If you're here to talk about Saraya again, I'm not interested." He started, holding up a hand as he grabbed a towel.

"Calm down, man." Kofi laughed, holding his hands up in front of him. "I was just going to ask if you were busy later."

"I don't know, depends on what you're doing." The one thing about Phil was that he didn't beat around the bush. He wouldn't lie to get out of doing something, he'd simply say that he didn't want to do it, if that was the case. Some people respected it, others really didn't like it. But, that was part of his nature.

"Just some dinner, Mike knows a place not far from here. There's a big group going, bring Saraya if she's not busy." He suggested, and Phil shrugged a little.

"Maybe. I'll talk to her, and we'll find you." He said, before then disappearing off into the showers.

Whilst in there, he had some time to think. Ever since Saraya had brought everything up earlier, he wondered if there was really some substance to everyone seeing them as a couple. Was it really that blindingly obvious? Phil didn't see it, really. He saw her as a great friend, someone he could trust - which he knew was a rarity in this business. So many people would step over you to get to the top, but he knew Saraya wasn't that sort of person, and he knew that he could talk to her about whatever he liked - even if he wasn't big on opening up. It was odd, but maybe Kofi and everyone else had a point when they mentioned it all.

Shaking off the thought, he turned off the shower and proceeded to get changed. He had to find her now, and find out if she wanted to go for food with everyone else. He didn't know how he felt about a dozen eyes watching them, judging them, knowing they'd be gossiping about it the second they left.


End file.
